New Zealand North Island 2 (Paihia, Cape Reinga)

Map of NZ North Island - road map to Cape Reinga.













The most awaited trip - Ninety Mile Brach and Cape Reinga on 22 March 2009. The coach picked us up at 7.30 am at the Motel. To go there on our own, we have to rent a four-wheel drive but since we were not sure of the condition of the place, MSL arranged for us to go by coach. Most of the tourists in our coach were from UK and we were the only Asians - all senior citizens. I was not disappointed at all with the trip, in fact, I was so glad that I insisted to go there.

Manginangina walk to see the laarge kauri tree over 1,000 years old.














Hugging the huge kauri tree with a local boy.

The trip was so fascinating, especially when we stopped at Puketi Kauri Forest seeing the amazing over 1,000 years old kauri tree which was so unbelievably huge at Manginangina walk. I hugged the trunk of this awesome tree and my arm barely reached a quarter of it. I guess, it takes about five or six adults, hand in hand to hug the trunk. I have seen huge trees in Perth, Adelaide, Redwood Forest in San Francisco and other forests offering sights of trees of fantastic sizes but this one is the winner!! The couch took us through Doubless Bay and of course the view is breathtaking. For those who don't enjoy isolated and quiet landscape it might be boring but to me it was so beautiful and serene and I was awake throughout the journey.

At Waiharara we stopped for coffee at the Ancient Kauri Kingdom. This a cafe and a souvenir shop. What is so intersting is ,in this place, there is a huge old trunk of a kauri tree and the building was built around it. They carved steps in the trunk to go the next level of the shop. This is the place where tourists can buy stamps specially for Cape Reinga (not sold anywhere else) and post postcards or letters at Cape Reinga only. I bought 2 postcards and 2 stamps - one addressed to me and one for Izat, Razali's son who collects stamps. As the stamp is a collector's item, I am disappointed when I found out the card did not reach Razali at Unimas. This is the second time my postcard to Izat failed to reach Razali at Unimas. The other stamp and postcard I sent to Izat was from Cape Point in Cape Town, South Africa. Is it the fault of the post office or the fault of the delivery system in Unimas?

The kauri tree trunk in the Ancient Kauri Kingdom cafe and souvenir shop. The inside of the old tree trunk is carved with spiral steps. The shop is built around this tree trunk.

Anyone fancies a love seat? This kauri love seat costs over NZ$ 20,000 - heavy!!
















Sitting at the throne seat at the kauri tree trunk in the Ancient Kauri Kingdom - it's a big attraction with tourists.

Then the coach detoured to Ninety Mile Beach, driving on the beach itself almost near the edge of the Tasman Sea. The beach is well taken care of and so clean, We saw a dead whale and dolphin which were washed away on the beach and the seagulls and other birds had a good feast on them.

The dead whale. food for the seagulls and other birds.

The 90 Miles Beach is actually 68 miles in length with hard sandy beach - hard enough for cars and coaches to drive along it. Just next to it, there are sand dunes. That was my excitement. With a little bit of coaching from Barry, the coach driver, I braved the challenge to do sand-boarding but I chose a smaller dune!!. It was tough climbing up the dunes as my legs sunk into the soft sand every step of the way - just like walking in thick snow going upwards. But wow!!! the glide down on the board was sheer fun and exhilirating!!!! I was screaming my head off with glee, almost everyone screamed-young and old! That's it, just one try. I didn't want to climb again - too tiring. I am proud I did it. Chom and Indra declined - their loss.

Sand-boarding on the small dune. The red dot there is me!

The hard climb up the big sand dunes to sandboard down at breakneck speed.

With a hole in the rock as background at Ninety Mile Beach and the crystal clear Tasman Sea.

After the beach, the coach took us to Taputaputa Bay to rest a while before the drive up to Cape Reinga and the lighthouse. We had our lunch there accompanied by so many red leg seagulls enjoying the bits and pieces of food thrown by tourists. Inspite of that not even a piece of rubbish was found there.

Indra and Chom having lunch and feeding the seagulls at Taputaputa Bay.








Cape Reinga here I come. I have dreamt of walking on you for quite some time and here I was. As expected, Cape Reinga is isolated, beautiful and enchanting. The walk down towards the light house allowed our eyes to feast on the beauty of 2 oceans. On the left was the blue-green Tasman Sea and on the right was the deep blue South Pacific Ocean and both merged at the end of the cape. I posted the two postcards there. Thank you Cape Reinga for not disappointing me.

The light house at Cape Reinga where the Tasman Sea and South Pacific Sea meet.

The view of South Pacific Ocean from the top of Cape Reinga.

Barry, the coach driver (pic: he is on the left after picking fresh clams from the sea) was a real comic. Everyone just cannot help but laughed at every last words he said. He was such a joker that we hardly slept on our way with his jokes and chatter about the places we pased. That was very informative. I remember, when we were leaving Paihia towards Cape Reinga, he explained that NZ has built an underground condominium which is quiet and peaceful and that everyone is dying to get in there. And at that point, he asked us to look on the left and there was a cemetry!!! He was so hilarious.


We reached Paihia late in the evening, bought dinner at the Indian restaurant at the wharf and hit the bed with dreamless sleep or maybe dreamt of the next day cruise to Cape Brett Hole in the Rock.




Paihia from the wharf.











Only a millionair can own this piece of island - on the way to Cape Brett Hole in the Rock.

Monday 23 March 2009. It wasn't a good day - it rained! Our Cape Brett Hole in the Rock cruise was a disappointment. I wanted to see and sail through the Hole in the rock but because the sea was quite rough the cruise oat bcould not go through. We were not able to take good pictures either because of the heavy rain. Anyhow I was happy that I got to see it even though at Ninety Mile Beach we could see another hole in the rock from far.

We stopped for coffee at Urupukapuka island in the rain.







At this juncture, the three of us agreed that we should stay extra day in Paihia in order for us to explore more Bay of Islands especially Russell, the first capital of NZ. Anyone going there - stay at Paihia at least 3 days. More days if possible. I would like to drive to Cape Reinga again on my own to enable me to stop at whatever places that attracted me to take photos or just to explore. Traveling by coach was so restricting. We left Paihia in the afternoon to Whangarei ( pronounce Fangarei!) to reach Auckland again by evening and stayed at Oakwood Manor. We didn't stop at the town. Most of the time, we lost our way but we met friendly people who were helpful.